Berlin: A Simple Signpost

On the other side of the world from Hanoi,
Soviet jets also sped across the skies. Only 500 feet above the
rooftops of West Berlin whooshed dozens of supersonic MIGs. They fired
salvos of blanks from their cannon, shattered the sound barrier once
every seven minutes, shook windows, walls, nerves and eardrums all over
town.

The "Ivans" dived lowest over West Berlin's sleek Congress Hall,
nicknamed "the pregnant oyster," where West Germany's Bundestag was
sitting in a one-day symbolic session. With the acquiescence of the
three Western allies that still retain occupation...